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A while back Maker.ie sat down with Nicolas Collins the man who quite literally wrote the book on sound manipulation with regards to electronic music. Collins’ 2006 book Handmade Electronic Music: The Art of Hardware Hacking has proved to be extremely popular with hobbyists, electronica music enthusiasts and sound artists themselves alike. As well as this, Mr Collins has proven through this book that not only is he very knowledgeable in his field (and with good reason given his list of accomplishments, which include a myriad of contemporary compositions and the fact that in many ways he is a pioneer of this particular music genre) but also that he can convey his ideas and designs in such a manner as not to be daunting or confusing to those who may have a more base level of understanding of electronic circuitry or indeed music theory/sound manipulation in general.

In this interview we discuss with Mr Collins the pros and cons of software vs. hardware, how and why he started to tinker and toy with circuitry, who influenced him throughout his career and what he thinks lies ahead with the hacker scene in the future.

We hope you enjoy watching this interview as much as we enjoyed sitting down and talking to the man in person.

Today I would like to introduce you to the queen of DIY electronics. Her name is Jeri Ellsworth. She has done many amazing things in her career as an entrepreneur, self-taught computer chip designer and all round DIY hacking legend.

Her interest in electronics began when she taught herself how to program using manuals from the Commodore 64. By the time she was in high school, she was designing, making and selling dirt-track race cars. From the age of 21 she ran her own computer repair shop before selling up in the early 2000’s.

In 2004 she went on to develope the extremely popular C64 Direct to TV .This ingenious device is a Commodore 64 within a single joystick that contains 30 games from the 80’s. As documented in the Lifehacker article where she was named MacGyver of the Day, she impressively reverse engineered the Commodore 64 using an FPGA (field-programmable gate array). If this wasn’t impressive enough, she did it all from this photo.

If you are a tech/music geek I challenge you not to fall in love with Jeri Ellsworth

She always comes up with the coolest hacks, and this one does not disappoint. Jeri has taken an old bass guitar and attached it, using some piezo pickups and some nifty programming, to a Commodore 64! Surely the ultimate chiptune, electro-acoustic instrument?

The C64 bass can also act as a Keytar and various waveforms can be selected from the keyboard.

Here’s an interview with Jeri at a recent Makerfaire where she explains a little about the build process.Jeri is actually a self-taught electrical engineer and has been a huge inspiration to me for a while now. Search her name on Youtube to check out some of her podcasts and cool projects.

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We have lots of people writing for us who are interested in making, creative technologies, music, the maker movement and everything inbetween. If you'd like to contribute we'd be delighted! You can contact us on blog@maker.ie.